Some may ask, “Why would I pray for protection from evil or the evil one, when I don’t believe there is such a thing as evil or the evil one?” (aka the devil or satan.) To that person I would say, I am so sorry that you have become a product of Western secular education! Ever since the “Age of Reason” took hold in the 18th century most highly educated people have denied the existence of evil, evil spirits or the devil as only a superstition carried over from an uneducated, primitive, superstitious past. They may think of the devil as some old cartoon character that they have seen, where a good spirit and bad spirit whisper competing influences into the human’s ears. Some might even remember laughing at comedian Flip Wilson’s humorous, “the devil made me do it” shtick, but to them the devil is just something to laugh about.
Their “reasoning” is that all we need to lead us to goodness is to be more reasonable (as in the Age of Reason) and that evil doesn’t make sense because it is irrational.
To go a step farther I did a search titled “Does evil exist?” I found, as I expected, a great number of sites that deny that evil does exist… that man is basically good and a good man who does evil, does so because of the influence of a bad society, etc. There it is again! All sorts of reasons to rationalize the non-existence of evil.
The Bible teaches that man sins because he has a fallen sinful nature, which is flatly denied…in fact ridiculed by them. They do not believe that the devil tempts or enslaves people to do evil, yet how does one look at history and deny the evil of say, Nazism, Imperial Japan, Communism, Ted Bundy or Saddam Hussein, Dylann Roof or Stephan Paddock.
In the last decade or so America has been experiencing a plague of the mass murdering of innocent people in schools, churches or music concerts. There is no explanation for this, except these are the acts of evil. We have heard or read in the media reports of people blaming their egregious deeds on hearing a voice, often saying that it is God telling them to do horrible and harmful things, such as: “Mother hears voices telling her to kill her children.”
With all of that, I ask myself, how can we live in this world and deny that there is a devil and demons who prey on mankind?
I personally have had many experiences of witnessing the influence of demons in peoples’ lives. Few, if any, had psychological issues; many of these folks were very normal, nice people, but were bound in certain areas of their lives by addictions, out of control anger, perversions, uncontrollable anger and violence at times, all sorts of sinful behavior. These were people with spiritual issues and after addressing the demons in the Name of Jesus Christ, as we are instructed in the Bible to do, they were driven out and the person was freed from their evil influence and gained victory in their life. I might add that during some of these times a being would say through the person’s own mouth that it would not leave the person. But they must! (Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Acts of the Apostles.)
Anyone can deny that there is evil or an evil one, but that does not change reality and the reality is evil does exist, satan is its author and his deeds are seen and heard of daily.
Here are scriptures that help us to know who he is and what he is doing:
1 John 5:19, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
Isaiah describes the fallen state of satan: “All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?" (Isaiah 14:11-17).
John 10:7-10: “Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. [a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Jesus defeated Satan when He shunned his temptations and lived a sinless life in obedience to God. His death, burial and resurrection brought destruction to satan’s power, though he continues to tempt and attack people, who are the one part of creation that was created in God’s image. We must be diligent and “not ignorant of the devil’s schemes and that is why it is so important for us to pray: “Our Father in heaven, deliver us from the evil one!”
Pastor Gary A. Smith
New Life Christian Fellowship
Alpena, MI
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